Vespa Book

Weschler's temporally and topically wide-ranging collection has fed my love of creative nonfiction, and specifically of writing that "worries out the threads" between art, history, biography and politics. I picked up this book, almost at random, at a used bookstore, initially fascinated by its title but then pulled in by the first piece, "In Lieu of a Preface: Why I Can't Write Fiction" ("I wouldn't be able to invent a fictional New York housewife, because the city as it is is already overcrowded-there are no apartments available, there is no more room in the phone book.") Thankfully, Weschler's inability to write fiction means he has devoted himself to creatively engaging with all kinds of non-fictional things. His "Balkan Triptych" finds the relevance of Vermeer, Shakespeare, and Aristotle during and in the aftermath of the Bosnian War, while "Three Polish Survivor Stories" provides complex portraits of Roman Polanski, Jerzy Urban, and Art Spiegelman. Grandfathers and daughters, L.A., and a series of artist profiles round out the two-decade body of work presented here. I finished it inspired, and looking forward to more.